More than 15,000 rock fans, known as 'prawns', missioned to the 19th Oppikoppi this past long weekend, at Oppikoppi Farm in Northam, Limpopo. Oppikoppi, a colloquial abbreviation in Afrikaans known as 'op die koppie' (up the hill), is a multi-stage concert festival and over 60 national and international bands kept the prawns entertained throughout the three-day festival.
The overall vibe was really amazing and I have never met so many people at a concert before. Everyone was friendly and welcoming, especially when it was extremely cold at night time and needed warmth from their fires. My mate and I had great neighbours, who even lent us a hand to help set up our tent when we arrived on Thursday evening. Once we had finished battling it out with our humungous tent and the treacherous thorn trees, we went in search of the entertainment area and found clouds of dust, festive inebriated people, and rocking music. Welcome to Oppikoppi!
Inspired by Badly Drawn Boy's classic album's title, 'Bewilderbeast' was the theme for this year's Oppikoppi. The theme was announced earlier in the year to make sure that everyone had plenty of time to prepare. For those that dressed the part, campsites were arranged in such a way as to best portray the theme or to just create art for the festival. There were daily, personalised couch competitions, according to the theme, and the winner was announced at 3 p.m. every day.
During the day there were various activities for those who wanted to relax and recover from the previous night of partying. Since the theme was 'Bewilderbeast', there was a place called 'Build your own beast' where prawns were provided with various items to build masks, and then hang them in the tree. There was a mechanical bull called 'Dandy' and only the brave challenged her spirit. Other events on offer included the Boom Street 500 Naked Dash, Dustbowl Carry Able Boxcar race, Running of the BewilderBeast, and the Wil(d)Abong Dust Road Surf Classic.
The six stages were spread out around the farm, close enough to walk to, but far enough so that the different stage's music didn't interfere with each other. All the stages were decorated differently. For example, Wesley's Dome had horns that were lit up at night time, while the James Philips main stage had a beast's head mounted above the stage and was large enough to be visible from a distance away. The Skellum stage was a riot of colour, its brilliance setting it apart from the other stages. If six stages weren't enough to keep everyone continuously entertained, a new edition to Oppi was the 'een man een boom' travelling campsite, which offered various bands and prawns the opportunity to play on top of the van that was kitted out with speakers, microphones, speakers, and little chairs to sit on when performing.
Being a huge festival junkie, I found Oppikoppi extremely well organised in comparison to previous festivals that I have attended. What I found really impressive was that an app had been created especially for Oppi. A map was included so you knew where everything was, a programme of events, and you could schedule reminders for any of the bands you wanted to listen to. It even had a friend tracking system with others who had the app! Smartphones are known to have awful battery life spans, but this wasn't an issue at Oppi as there was a Chargen station to charge phones for R20 an hour. One of the most common problems I've come across is that many festivals and concerts run out of water, but the organisers at Oppi were one step ahead by providing a water stand where you paid R45 and could get unlimited refills. Preloaded, cashless cards were adopted from the last two Oppikoppi festivals, making it easier for those who easily lose money, as well as keeping control of how much was spent.
There were numerous assorted bars spread all around Oppi, with places to sit and chill over a refreshing cold beer with friends and live music in the background. As for the food, and being a first-time Oppikoppier, aka a new prawn, I was worried about eating junk food over the entire weekend, but I was pleasantly surprised to find a variety of healthy options available in addition to the usual fare.
There were numerous assorted bars spread all around Oppi, with places to sit and chill over a refreshing cold beer with friends and live music in the background. As for the food, and being a first-time Oppikoppier, aka a new prawn, I was worried about eating junk food over the entire weekend, but I was pleasantly surprised to find a variety of healthy options available in addition to the usual fare.
The festive atmosphere was truly overwhelming. Pretty lights were creatively hung everywhere you looked, turning the farm into a twinkling wonderland at night. Now to give you an example of what I mean by creative, there were dresses draped in the trees with lights shining through them. Fun images of monsters could be seen all around and was also lit up at night time. Visitors to the fest also went all out by dressing up, either with paint splattered all over them, wearing animal onesies, tutus or just small undies. It was all great fun to watch whilst walking around and I even saw a guy only wearing an animal sock thong, luckily I wasn't close enough to catch what animal it was!
With this being an extremely diverse festival, the organisers of Oppi were once again steps ahead. There were numerous sections that catered for every type of visitor.
For the sophisticated, there was the Paperslam section brought to you by Postbox, where people could sit on comfy couches around the fires and sip on wine. For the rum rogues and beer bashers, there was the Captain Morgan and Windhoek bar deck on top of the koppie. Although the koppie was difficult to get up, once there, you had the most incredible view of the short-lived Oppikoppi town. The koppie was entertainment in itself, as it was extremely steep, rocky, and narrow, and often got the better of those who braved this monstrous hill.
Although I'm still coughing up mud from all of the dust I inhaled over the weekend, having left clumps of hair in various thorn trees all around the camping site, and developed a huge blister on my foot from walking a lot, my experience at Oppi was awesome! I got to see so many fantastic bands, made loads of new friends, and I still have a huge smile that is practically glued to my face!
After spending four days glorious days at Oppi, with only about ten hours of sleep in that time, I feel that I didn't have enough time to explore every part of Oppi and only scraped the surface of what this festival is about.
Now that I've experienced it, I'll be much better prepared next year and can't wait to see what additions the organisers have up their sleeves in celebration of 20 years of Oppikoppi magic!
